


Old Wounds

by Rakath



Category: Degrassi, Degrassi: Next Class
Genre: F/F, F/M, POV First Person, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22780921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rakath/pseuds/Rakath
Summary: Miles and Maya talk a little about their past, and where they are.First person perspective.
Relationships: Frankie Hollingsworth/Esme Song, Miles Hollingsworth III/Maya Matlin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Old Wounds

I lounged. It was a lounge chair, by a pool, it was meant for lounging. I showed up early to help Miles set-up for the graduation party. But he’s Miles Hollingsworth III, he had people for that. Caterers, a moving company, someone delivering a keg who seemed on a first name basis with Miles, and wasn’t asking for ID. And I thought little old me could be of help with all this.

Or maybe I told myself that I could help to be here, visible.

In the way.

“Martini, Matlin? Shaken, not stirred.” Miles stood next to me, catching my attention more with his shadow in my sun than his words. Brandishing two glasses, a martini glass… and a rocks glass that probably had bourbon in it.

And I took the bourbon.

Miles stared at me. I returned an equal attention, daring him. Say it, say ‘that’s mine’ and take it back. He didn’t. He just smiled, downed the martini all at once, casually said, “I’ll be right back.”

And fixed himself a new bourbon on the rocks.

I sat up a little more and watched him, sipping  _ my _ bourbon. He barely paid any effort into his pouring, knowing exactly how fast the liquid moved, how many fingers he wanted. How many times has he done this? When did pouring glasses become pouring drinks? He put great care into picking the right ice cubes for it too. I couldn’t tell you what the method was to that, but he seemed to think it important.

He came back, I didn’t hide I was watching him. “Cheers.”

Our glasses clanked, we both sipped.

“It’s your fault I have a taste for whiskey.”

“You’re not the first girl to tell me that,” Miles relaxed and surveyed the work. “But, in my defense, I rescued you from your own terrible impulses. Wine coolers?”

“Shut up, I was fourteen.”

“Ah, the mistakes of youth,” Miles saluted with his glass, “But we’re still youthful, and definitely have more mistakes left to make.”

“Mistakes, yes. Youth?” I studied the ice in my glass, longer than it truly warranted, “I don’t think either of us has had that in a while.”

“We need to hang out more often, I love rain clouds and gloom.” He was smiling, I could hear it in his voice. It was always endearing, and infuriating, even when we first dated.

“I’m serious,” I whined, only a little. “Tell me any of our high school shit was us just being kids. With a straight face.”

I watched Miles as he considered my words. Looking for where he was on this. It was hardly the light banter of a party. But Miles was used to my… moods. He had it worse than me, by every measure I could think of. Tristan was his boyfriend, I was just a friend Tristan used to have. I caused all of my own trouble, Miles’s troubles started out of his control. He got help, I didn’t.

“Doesn’t mean we can’t carve a little bit of youth for us?”

I waited for an explanation for what that meant.

“Lakehurst is having their prom right now, you can borrow one of my sister’s dresses. We can crash it, be normal teenagers for an evening. Not spike any punch, slow dance while you step on my toes. Then sneak off and park to make out.”

I sighed, “You’re hosting this party.”

“Nobody will miss us.”

“But that isn’t what I meant,” I sighed, “How is it so easy to just- wash away it all?”

“Because it’ll fade eventually. It’ll never go away, but we can make ourselves better by just letting it not weigh us down, if only for an evening. If you want to be normal, we can be normal. But…”

“But?”

“Do you think we’d be better off normal? I’m not saying your tragedies and my abuse were good or anything. Just that we know what we’re capable of. We’ve seen the worst the world can throw at us and we’ve made it past. But, I’ll gladly forget all that for an evening if you want.”

Jaded optimism was a weird look for Miles, but he wore it well. There was a grace to focusing on the results, downplaying the events. Probably a part of how far he’d come. Some choices he made to make himself better. I’d made a few choices myself to keep from sinking back into the abyss in my head. I put down my glass and got up, curling up on Miles’s lap. “We could skip to the end part of Prom night?”

“Ugh! Can you two not? This is my graduation party after all.” Frankie Hollingsworth stood at the doorway to the house, on her left was her twin, Hunter. And her right, just behind her, was a quiet Esme Song.

She was holding Frankie’s hand, but trying to keep it discreet.

“Our party,” Hunter added, then moved on to get something non-alcoholic from the bar.

“Hi Esme, how are you doing?” I asked, “It’s- okay I’m here right?”

Esme didn’t show much on her face, “I did invite you. Didn’t think you’d just try to ditch immediately with your boyfriend.”

“Wait,” Frankie whirled around, “Why did you invite her?”

“We’ve kept in touch since last year,” I didn’t think it was a secret, but Esme had gotten good at keeping secrets. “Part of her therapy, and-”

I got it. A lot of the things Esme felt, I of all people, could understand. And I could listen. Her biggest nightmare was also able to be her friend.

“So what were we interrupting?” Esme asked, trying to change the direction of things.

“Oh, Maya and I were considering crashing a prom and pretending to be teenagers for a night.”

Esme grinned, it was a good sight. “Kinky. I’m in.”

Frankie stared, “Esme.”

“What, our prom was weird. Everyone remembers last year. Crashing some other prom will make us seem almost normal.” Esme turned her attention to the other twin, “Hunter, cover for us while we cause mischief?”

“Hunter, no. Esme, also no.”

Hunter rolled his eyes and didn’t come over to join us. Can’t imagine why.

“The adult here has decreed, I guess we’ll just stay, make small talk. Then Maya and I’ll sneak off at some point.” Miles handed me my glass. Well, a glass. Mine had less in it than his, which was about how this worked when we had the same drinks. He slipped his arm around my waist after.

I always loved how well I fit next to him.

“You two are gross, but cute. If we’re not doing anything that involves lying and scheming we might as well wait for the rest of the party guests and just get this over with.” Esme made more of a show of her pulling Frankie in close to her.

“We can still be normal teenagers for a night?” Miles asked, once Esme and Frankie’s attentions diverted from us.

“I met a boy in sophomore year. We dated. Had some drama. Got back together. Can’t be more normal than that, right? If we just ignore all the unpleasant details.”

His brother’s sending a S.W.A.T. team to my house, his sister’s girlfriend saving me from a suicide attempt. His nearly baby momma being so excited to see us her text had four exclamation marks and three heart emojis. All the weird shit that, I guess, count as normal.

“Right, just be proud how little trouble my siblings got up to in the year I was gone. Nothing burned down, no prop guns.”

“Nearly forgot you set the school on fire.”

“One time.”

“That you’ll admit to.”

“That I’ll admit to.”

And I kissed him, it felt right, being back like this again. Maybe this was normal enough. Or maybe I should stop getting so concerned with details. “I’m glad I didn’t have a martini, kissing is better when we’re both having the same drink.”

“Plus you’ll never notice I switched the glasses.”

“Either behave or go have sex in the pool house!” Esme called over to us, before beckoning us to join them.

“You’re not allowed to have sex in the pool house, I called dibs.” Frankie added.

Miles kissed my forehead, then headed for the others. Leaving me to choose how much I wanted to deal with people right now.

I took a moment to watch him head over, smile, and follow.

Normal enough. I’ll live with that.


End file.
